Spectra7 Microsystems Inc. (“Spectra7” or the “Company”), a leading provider of high-performance analog semiconductor products for broadband connectivity markets, announced that it will be demonstrating Spectra7’s new 112G PAM4 GaugeChanger™ chip intended for next generation 800Gbps data center interconnects at this year’s annual The Optical Fiber Conference and Exhibition (OFC) being held in San Diego, CA from March 8–10, 2022. The demonstration will highlight the performance of Spectra7’s new GC1122 chip compensating for 112Gbps PAM4 signal loss over 3m of 30AWG high-speed twin-ax cable.
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As the industry moves to 800Gbps it will adopt 112Gbps PAM4 per lane signaling over 8 lanes. At these ultra-high signal rates, traditional passive copper cables will struggle to reach beyond 1.5 meters. This creates a huge problem for Hyperscalers that require longer lengths to serve both switch-to-switch and switch-to-server connections, but do not want to incur the power and cost penalty of optics. Active Copper Cables (ACCs) enabled with Spectra7’s GC1122 solution will extend copper cable reach 2.5 times, up to 4.5 meters at a fraction of the cost of optics. Critically, at a time when Hyperscale operators are struggling with power consumption and carbon emissions, ACCs using the Spectra7 technology will consume only 200mW of power per channel, which is up to 12 times lower power than optical solutions.
The GC1122 is the latest addition to the GaugeChanger™ product line and extends the data rate from 56Gbps PAM4 to 112Gbps PAM4 per lane. Since the GC1122 is analog and highly linear, dynamics such as line rate adjustment, multi-level signaling, intermittent line silence, transmit pre-emphasis or amplitude adjustment and receiver adaptivity are fully preserved. The GC1122 is packaged in an ultra-small 2.7mm x 4.2mm chip scale package making it easily embeddable in even the smallest of connectors.
“We are seeing strong interest from both US and China Hyperscalers to get sample 400Gbps and 800Gbps cables that are enabled by our new GC1122 solution”, said Spectra7 CEO Raouf Halim. “Both we and our cable partners believe that 112Gbps PAM4 signaling will represent a significant acceleration in the growth and adoption of our ACC data center interconnect technology.”